Things to do / Travel Guide
Metro Chicago
Over the years, Chicago has seen major jumps in population. The city of Chicago itself is home to 2.9 million people, whereas the metropolitan Chicago area, often called Chicagoland, has about 9 million people in total and covers vast swathes of area in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Chi-town has been a melting pot of different cultures since the 1840's. It has the largest population of Swedish-Americans in the United States, and is also has the largest population of Poles outside Poland. Chicago is also the third-largest Greek city outside Greece. Many of the city's immigrants in days past headed straight to Maxwell Street, near Greektown, to start their lives fresh and in the heart of things.
Currently, 36% of the city's population is African-American, about 30% is Caucasian, and roughly a quarter are Hispanic. Smaller groups of minorities fill out the remainder of the city's residents.
With a city so diverse in culture, it's no surprise that Chicago is diverse in employment as well. Residents are employed in everything from professional and business services, to hospitality services and transportation. They work hard, and play just as hard. Like tourists, residents of Chicagoland like to visit the area museums and attractions, and they also like to let loose in the area bars and music venues.
A big part of the Chicago is Chicagoans' love of food. It's a city with a very distinct cuisine, of deep dish pizzas, Italian beef sandwich, Maxwell Street sausages, and more. This is street food, the kind you get after a ball game, or before a date. Buy a sandwich and head over to one of the parks, and join the multitudes of Chicagoans in their natural environment.
Southern Wisconsin
While Southern Wisconsin is not as ethnically diverse as Chicago, most of the residents are from Eastern and Central European descent mainly Germany, Poland, and Serbia. Approximately two million people reside in southern Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest city, boasts almost 600,000 people, and is one of the more ethnically diverse cities in Wisconsin. Milwaukee's Caucasian residents make up roughly 60% the population, while African Americans comprise about a quarter of the population, and Hispanics and Latinos are roughly 10%.
Still a city known for factories and a working-class environment, Milwaukee is nevertheless turning into a new cultural hub for the Midwest. While beer factories is still a major source of employment in Milwaukee, healthcare services, manufacturing, and financial services round out the top employment fields.
Madison, Wisconsin's capitol, has just over 200,000 residents, mostly Caucasians (84%) of mostly Anglo-Saxon descent. Madisonites take their lifestyle very seriously. In fact, in 2004, “Men's Health” magazine rated Madison the healthiest city in the United States. This is an amazing feat for the residents of the Cheese State, whose favorite delicacies include bratwurst and beer. Also known as the “Left Coast of Wisconsin,” Madison residents tend to be very liberal, unlike their conservative counterparts in Milwaukee. The government is the major supplier of employment in Madison, with virtually all of the state's departments making Madison their home. Biotech firms and business services are also in the top employment industries in Madison.
Wisconsinites from all over the state are nicknamed “badgers.” The reason for this is that in the early days of the area's settlement, the southwestern quadrant of the future state was known for its many lead mines. These teetered out by the 1840s, but during the early years of the “lead rush,” before the many incoming immigrants could arrange for housing, they simply burrowed up with their families in the mines they had themselves dug - like the badger does. And the name stuck.
America's number-one cheese-producing state is, of course, Wisconsin. The state is blessed with rolling hills and pastureland, perfect for the grazing of cows. When the European immigrants moved in they brought their cheese-making skills with them. Cheese was actually very important, as it was one of the best ways to store any surplus of milk the farmers' cows might have produced. So basically they've been making cheese in the Cheese State since the 1840s.
Wisconsinites like to have fun, and no one has more fun than residents of southern Wisconsin. Wisconsin is ranked fourth in per capita alcohol consumption in the United States and Milwaukee was named the “drunkest city” in the United States. Don't be afraid of these statistics, as Wisconsinites are known for cutting back and having a good - responsible - time. Like most of their Midwestern counterparts, those in southern Wisconsin love social gatherings of any kind. Summertime brings out the block parties, the backyard bar-b-q, and festivals - which badgers of all ages attend with glee.
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